As I have mentioned before, I watch a fun show on HDNet called Inside the NHL, where the annoying Dan Moriarty interviews lots of players and they show highlights and features and such. I like to complain about the MSM ignoring the Dallas Stars all the time, but the last three or four episodes of the show have just been slopping over with Stars features. Here are some of the latest ones.

Philippe Boucher was mic’d up for his first game back after his (first) shoulder injury. It happened to be Brad Richards’ first game, too, so he was a little overshadowed. But Bouche telling Marty, “You’re the man!” is so adorable, it makes up for it.

I’ve been suggesting they mic up all the players in a game and then cut it all together for an hour show you could buy on a DVD. I’m telling the wrong people, I guess, because I don’t see it happening. But this show’s version is a good start.

Mike Smith was interviewed next to the Lightning’s bus that was waiting for him, and Moriarty had to stand on a crate to talk to him.

Jeff Halpern did his interview right after that and they had to edit out the part where Halpie is yelled at to get on the bus.

Brenden Morrow shows us his new house and his adorable little daughter.

I’m not going to stop saying I told you so about the trade. That trade is like the road spikes that cops throw in front of fleeing cars. It has brought us to a sudden, screeching halt.

Turco is fishtailing. Their confidence with a lead is totally gone. They are actually better off going into the third without the lead.

They couldn’t beat Los Angeles, which is the worst team in the league. They couldn’t beat Anaheim, when they had been owning them up until now. They can’t beat anybody.

They can’t protect a lead! Why is that? What are they doing that’s different? Are the defensemen just tired? Is Turco still pining for his buddy Smitty? Did everybody forget how to get a stupid puck out of their own zone?

Do they think they’ve clinched a playoff spot already? Because they haven’t!

Like I said before, whether they’re 4th or 5th in the playoffs isn’t something they need to be talking about. They need to worry about those behind them catching up and knocking them out of the playoffs altogether.

They need six points to clinch a playoff spot and I’m not optimistic right now.

Sergei Zubov skated before practice on Thursday, then today he skated in full gear. I just can’t tell you how excited I am at the prospect of Zubie coming back to the ice.

According to Heika, Zubie’s just as excited about it as I am. He skated in sweats before practice again today, but just couldn’t stand it anymore and put on his whole kit and went through the entire practice. He said he felt good, and even though he’s fudged on that before, I’m going to believe him.

Philippe Boucher practiced with the team, too, and it appears it wasn’t the first time. He is shooting pucks, but not taking any hits yet. I’m even more excited at the prospect of Bouche coming back. I feel so guilty about jinxing him.

We really need Zubie and Bouche back on the ice. I think the kids have done more than was expected of them, covering for the absence of the two top defensemen on the team, but I think the season might be catching up with them a little bit. It will be good to get the big guys out there to calm everybody down (mainly me).

It was a perfectly normal game. The Stars played pretty well, and even got a shorthanded goal. Then they lost. In the last 30 seconds of the game.

The officiating was atrocious. They gave Brenden Morrow a penalty in the last minute of the game because that bleeping Todd Bertuzzi ran into him and then flung himself to the ice. They gave the Ducks a 4-minute high-sticking penalty for Norstrom’s high-stick on Ribeiro. They declined to call penalties at one end, then called them for the same exact thing at the other end.

They called Brenden Morrow for diving when he lunged for the puck! That’s how awful it was!

I’ve spent a lot of energy I shouldn’t have wasted hating Chris Pronger recently. And I’ve loathed the Ducks for a while now because of him and Niedermayer and Getzlaf and Perry and the whole un-retirement drama of two of their players. But I keep forgetting that even with all that, they also have the reprehensible Todd Bertuzzi on their team.

Maybe I’ll take a break from recapping games until they win one. It’s too upsetting. I wasn’t even that mad at the Stars this time. But if they don’t win any more games, the question of whether they’ll be home or away in the first round will be the least of their problems.